Uzbek Border Guards Kill Kyrgyz Citizen

BISHKEK -- Uzbek border guards have returned the body of a Kyrgyz citizen they shot dead on June 7 to his relatives, RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service reports.

Officials at the Kyrgyz Border Guard Service told RFE/RL that the Kyrgyz citizen is an ethnic Uzbek who was shot by Uzbek border guards near the Dostuk (Friendship) checkpoint.

The Uzbeks say he was crossing the border illegally and refused to stop when Uzbek border guards asked him to do so.

Meanwhile, Daniyar Abakirov, the chief of the Ana-Kyzyl village in Kyrgyzstan's Uzgen district, told RFE/RL that Kyrgyz citizen Ubaydulla Mitalipov has been missing for eight days after he went looking for a lost horse near the Kyrgyz-Uzbek border.

Some locals say Uzbek border guards took Mitalipov by force to the Uzbek side of the border on June 2.